With vaccine trials billed to start next year in three sub-Saharan African countries, the world could finally be on the threshold of dealing a devastating blow to malaria and saving lives lost annually to the rampant disease. After some measure of success in the clinical trials, the World Health Organisation has picked Ghana, Kenya and Malawi as the pilot countries where the first malaria vaccine, already seen as a breakthrough, will be trialled, citing the high prevalence of the disease in those countries despite their strong prevention programmes for the choice.
It should not come as a surprise that the global health agency is targeting sub-Saharan Africa in the trials as it is that part of the world that is notorious for carrying the greatest burden of the disease. WHO says that nearly half of the whole world is at risk of contracting malaria, including the South-East Asian, South American and Middle Eastern countries. But, according to 2015 estimates, 80 per cent of the 214 million cases recorded worldwide were in Africa, followed by 10 per cent in South-East Asia and two per cent in the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Malaria, defined as an acute febrile condition, is a life-threatening illness caused by plasmodium parasites, which are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female anopheles mosquitoes. It is spread when the mosquito bites an infected person, sucks up the blood already habouring the parasites, and then bites another person, into whom the parasites are transmitted.
Of the five parasite species transmitted through the vector (female anopheles mosquito), two species, namelyPlasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, constitute the greatest threat. P. falciparum has been implicated in most malaria fatalities, especially in Africa. Presented symptoms include headache, fever and chills. According to WHO, among children under five years of age — easily among the most vulnerable — other symptoms such as severe anaemia, respiratory “distress in relation to metabolic acidosis” or cerebral malaria are also common.
Though preventable and curable, malaria still manages to take a heavy toll on human lives, resulting in about half a million deaths annually. Experts say malaria takes the life of a child in every two minutes. This has been so mainly because the necessary preventive measures are not strictly adhered to, especially here in Nigeria, a country credited with the highest number of casualties every year.
At an event to mark last year’s World Malaria Day, a former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, was quoted as saying that, with 100 million cases and 300,000 deaths a year, the country had the highest number of casualties in the world. If it is considered that the global total for 2015 was 429,000 deaths, then it becomes very clear the extent of havoc wrought by the disease in Nigeria and why our health authorities should get down to business and save lives.
The most effective method of containing malaria is to control the vector that spreads the disease through the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and spraying of the house with insecticides. Since the vectors breed in stagnant water, it is advisable to ensure that breeding conditions are not favourable for them. It is obvious that if mosquitoes can be eliminated, malaria will also be eradicated.
During a programme to partner the organised private sector in the anti-malaria campaign in November last year, it was revealed that the illness cost Nigeria a whopping $2.5 billion every year. Aliko Dangote, a National Malaria Ambassador, said, “It indirectly damages the economy through the deterioration of human capital, the loss of savings, investment and tax revenue.”
The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, said that “over 100 million long-lasting insecticide treated nets were distributed within the last seven years to protect 28 million out of 33 million households” in the country. Unfortunately, most of the nets, which were provided by international donors, meant to be distributed free to households, found their way into markets for sale by unscrupulous Nigerians.
Vaccines have always played an intriguing and critical role in both the control and eventual elimination of diseases throughout human history. It was the development of the smallpox vaccine that led to the eradication of the deadly disease in 1980. The same thing is also being witnessed in the global efforts to eliminate polio, a test Nigeria almost passed until the vaccination campaign was interrupted by the ongoing terror war in the North-East and new cases emerged again last year.
